Dragon C2 [NASA]

Dragon is a space capsule designed by SpaceX to provide supplies to the International space station.

The Dragon spacecraft is made up of a pressurized capsule and unpressurized trunk usedfor Earth to LEO transport of pressurized cargo, unpressurized cargo, and/or crew members.Initiated internally by SpaceX in 2005, Dragon will be utilized to fulfill the NASA COTScontract for demonstration of cargo re-supply of theISS.

The Dragon capsule is comprised of three main elements: the Nosecone, which protects thevessel and the docking adaptor during ascent; the Pressurized Section, which houses thecrew and/or pressurized cargo; and the Service Section, which contains avionics, the RCSsystem, parachutes, and other support infrastructure. In addition an unpressurized trunkis included, which provides for the stowage of unpressurized cargo and will supportDragon's solar arrays and thermal radiators.

SpaceX was one of two winners of the NASA Commercial Orbital Transportation Servicescompetition. The SpaceX portion of the award is $278 million for three flightdemonstrations ofFalcon-9 v1.0 carrying the Dragonspaceship, which occured in mid 2009 and 2010. The prototypeDragon C1 capsule lacked several systems of the operational Dragon-C capsule. The second and third test flights were eventually combined into one mission andculminated in the transfer of cargo to the International Space Station (ISS) and return ofcargo safely to Earth.

The agreement also contains an option for three demonstration flights of the sevenperson crewed version of Dragon taking people to the ISS and back. The cargo Dragon andcrewed Dragon are almost identical, with the exception of the crew escape system, the lifesupport system and onboard controls that allow the crew to take over control from theflight computer when needed.

In addition to servicing NASA needs, the F9/Dragon will possibly also be of service toBigelow Aerospace, which plans to orbit a commercial space station. Bigelow Aerospace andSpaceX have an ongoing dialogue to ensure that F9/Dragon meets the human transportationneeds of their planned space station as efficiently as possible.

In December 2008 SpaceX received a contract under CRS-1 to deliver 20.000 kg to the ISS by themeans of 12 Dragon flights. In March 2015, three more missions were added to the contract for launches in 2017. In December 2015, five final missions were awarded under CRS-1.

Dragon CRS-7 was lost in a launch failure.

Under the CRS-2 selction in January 2015 Dragon was selected for a minimum of six missions, which will use acargo version of the Crew Dragon spacecraft.

References:

• SpaceX:Dragon website

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